3 AM

I tilted my head up at the inky sky to look for Orion's belt and remembered a whole lot of '3AM moments'.

3AM is a cusp in the urban human rhythm. Save, colicky babies, and the old mongrel fighting to retain territory from invaders, the world in general decides to drowse off, if not float through REM.

I rode home yesterday and felt like I was in a dream sequence of empty roads waiting for the rumble of traffic.

At 3AM, it feels as if the cityscape is gently exhaling. Rejuvenating from the pounding of a day bygone and bracing for the one ahead. There is a certain dip in the temperature which invites stupor.

I remember it well ever since I was preparing for my ICSE. It was the same while Chandu and I decided to open the last quarter of santra. When I walk out now to the comforting coolness of the night on the terrace... When I reach Dadar and fit myself into a taxi and nurture happy thoughts of snuggling with Josh after dinnner... When even the slave driven child labourers of the reataurant below the Ripon Street house manage to steal a moment of slumber before being beaten up an hour later... When the 3AM hunger gnaws at the innards... Never before or after. Only at 3AM does this hunger raise its demands.

It is time I went out to the terrace and took in the last vestiges of another 3AM...